Melissa McCarthy’s Fourth and One-Sixteenth time hosting SNL is solid, if not fantastic.

Ever since her first time hosting SNL in 2011, Melissa McCarthy has proven herself to be a reliable host, bringing her background in comedy and willingness to go very physical to the 30 Rock stage. Tonight’s show, her fourth time hosting, was still as solid, but a few sketches felt a little too expected.

What You Missed

Cold Open

Kate McKinnon as Hillary Clinton singing Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me” is everything I never knew I wanted. The kicker with Jeb Bush was icing on the cake.

Monologue

As they went into the song, I was thinking “isn’t this only the fourth time?”. I was correct.

The Day Beyonce Turned Black

This is a nice twist on The Beygency from a few years ago.

“What about ‘The Pink Panther’?” “Oh, yeah, she was white in that.”

“Rated NC-17 for white people.”

Movie Night

This managed to totally replicate the awkwardness of watching a movie’s sex scene with your parents.

Weekend Update

The GOP keeps holding debates on Saturdays thinking they’ll get out of SNL’s radar, but Weekend Update keeps proving them wrong.

Vanessa doing Rachel from Friends was uncanny, and played on old sitcom tropes well for a quick desk piece

Leslie Jones is always welcome at the Update desk, especially when she gets distracted talking about why she doesn’t like flowers. Did you see the supercut they put together earlier this week?
“You sexy dollop of Miracle Whip”

Pick-Up Artist

Leslie was losing it throughout this, but this is the sort of sketch Melissa McCarthy does so well on SNL.

Kyle vs. Kanye

Kyle and Beck’s Good Neighbor bits have gotten a little more flashy, production-wise, but the denouement on this was great.

Bus

Leslie Jones being caught in the most awkward city bus conversation with Melissa McCarthy was great cringe comedy. and I say that as someone who hated most of The Office.

Whiskers ‘R’ We

I’m always on board for these sketches

“Please, we both know you’re just doing this to piss off your senator father”

What You Didn’t Miss

The Test Screening sketch relied a little too heavily on pre-taped segments for my liking, and it also didn’t feel fresh for what Melissa McCarthy’s done on SNL before.

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Ben has been writing about TV, music, and pop culture in some form or another since 2009, including stints at Mental Floss and Temporary Obsession. When not solving puzzles of some sort or consuming pop culture at a frightening pace, he can be found collecting shiny pieces of the internet at GoodAtInter.net. E-mail: ben@whatelseison.tv